Nooby Multimeter question.

[Nuzzles]

Well, I've checked my rails and things before, but at the moment, I can't think of the right settings to do so. We just moved and I finally found my MM, so I want to test my new PSU out. So which number do I set it to? So many freakin' 20***'s
Just, I read somewhere about someone testing their rails with the wrong settings and doing something that hurt his PSU/PC.

Thanks

 

[Thor]

depends on the DMM (or AMM if thats the case) usually they have a setting thats around 20vdc and thats good for psu rails (some will have one for >1v(mv), 5v, 20v, 100v, and 600v, you want to use the one thats greater than the highest voltage you will be testing, you could use the 100v setting, but it wont be as accruate it may only go to a 10th of a volt, instead of hunderiths or thousandths of a volt, but if you use that 1v setting to test your 5v rail, you will mostlikely fry the DMM, my rat shack DMM (cheapo... it was like 20$ or something) will auto sence what ever range you need to use as long as the type is set right, (ac or dc)

as for your rails, yellow is 12v red is 5v and black is ground, you can run any colored to any black, as long as you dont short circuit, on the pc board connector, i beleave orange is 3.3v but im not absolutely shure on that, look up atx psu (2.0?) spec for the correct pin out.

thore

 

[Nuzzles]

^.^ ^Thanks a lot. Kick ass readings so far. I'll have to test them loaded soon.

So far:

IDLE

5V = 5.2

12V = 12.2

Only flucuate .1v, maybe every two seconds (my guesstimated average)

What's a good way to load the PSU? I don't have one of those fancy machines, so, just programs that would put a load on the PSU that can be had freely.

Edit: Can't be bothered doing the 3.3v anytime soon. I've got the mobo side panel off (have had so for a while now.) And that's facing me, with molexs flowing out the side, so yeah, they;'re easy to access. I see the SATA plugs have an orange, but dammit, not so simple as molexs. XD

 

[Thor]

(/sick) I see the SATA plugs have an orange, but dammit, not so simple as molexs. XD

im not shure what the orange on the sata is supposed to be, (all i know is it isnt needed, as the adaptors do away with it all together,) as for good programs to load the pc, 3dmark is a good one, as is aqua mark

thore

 

[Ice Czar]

What's a good way to load the PSU? I don't have one of those fancy machines, so, just programs that would put a load on the PSU that can be had freely.

start it
one of the concerns in a box with more than a few HDDs and fans is the potential instability caused by drives or fans spinning up
to overcome the inertia of the platters or fan blades they generally require 4 times their runtime draw, and of course you cant monitor that with software

its only the +12V rail, but all the fans and drives hit it at the same time

past that with your typical DMM its not all that easy to capture transients, generally speaking however you want to load the rails as much as possible (Toast for the CPU) and then stop the load suddenly to see if there is an overshoot

 

[davidhammock200]

Test like this: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=137886

 

[Nuzzles]

So I did the POST, etc etc test.

POST = 12.06 (last 1/4 of a second then shot toooooo....
Everything except load = 12.20
Load (prime 95 and 3dmark 2005 for ten minutes) = 12.18-12.24 (there wouldn't be a sudden jump from .18 to .24, but it would go up .18,.20, .22 (only example)ish.

I'm very happy with the new PSU....now I want 2gig of RAM and a new grahpics card...>.>

On a side note. The orange on the Sata *is* 3.3v, thore I just took off the cap and there were the heads of the wires. So yeah, just incase anyone else wasn't sure.